Being Whole

Being an entire person, means not only taking care of your career. Your spiritual or mental well-being, but also taking care of your body - as best as you can. We, at least those of us living a Western life, are living in the leisure class. We can afford the luxury to dwell on higher, philosophical, issues without too much concern about basic survival. We can concern ourselves with getting to know our inner self. We can focus on advancing our careers in order to live a comfortable life. Worry free. With the nicest things that life has to offer at our fingertips.

Once our minds are happy with the things that we can see and touch around us, we can then move on to finding God. We satisfy our souls with the fact that we get a sense of joy knowing that we feel a sense of peace that comes from spiritual accomplishment. Our hearts stop aching because we haven't found joy in the new Mercedes Benz. That our children have grown up and left us and we are robbed of that daily contact.

But to be fully human, living on this earth, we must also stretch and strengthen our bodies. This shell that gives us the ability to move around, sense our environment and give us an identity. Without this shell, we would be different. If you are lucky enough to have the gifts of a fully functional frame, then, as you would with your mind and soul, an attempt, a reasonably serious one, at making your body strong will ultimately enrich your life.

As we grow older, and definitely as we enter the Western workforce, we neglect any pursuits of a physical nature. We slip into a sedentary lifestyle with the excuse that we are too busy, or it's too cold, or too hot, or too dangerous to do any form of exercise. The industries that surround us too emphasise that you don't need to exercise too much. Thirty minutes a day is all. What lies.

In fact, there's now a discord between physical health and looking healthy. Medical science has come a long way. We can now improve our bodies without ever having to walk a single mile. As soon as things look like they're falling out of place, we can run to the nearest doctor and ask for cosmetic adjustments. Then run to the nearest fashion boutique and wear the slimmest, most fashionable clothing to match the medically shaped body. In today's world, what you see is not always what is. This particular affliction of trying to look good affects Western women more than it does the men. Women are more prone to undergoing bouts of starvation, or butchering under the surgeon's knife than get on a treadmill.

We've come full circle. From a time when working the farm, or soldiering for our survival was a daily back-breaking occupation. We now slip quietly into our vehicles in the morning, and spend all day sitting down in front of a computer terminal. Knowledge workers, we call ourselves. No wonder we can't do anything when we have a chance to. The more inactive your muscles are, the less desire and ability they have to do anything. The stronger they are, the more they want to move and become active. Use it, or lose it. How true.

It's unreasonable to expect that a weak frame can contribute positively to a mental attitude that is sharp and astute. After all, that brain is housed in this sluggishly moving body. It's also unreasonable to expect that your mental health, your outlook, our view of life, can be at its peak when you feel lethargic and tired.

It's definitely terminal to spend an entire existence sitting in front of a computer day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month and expect good health. That is, unless you do something about it.

There are 24 hours in a day. We sleep for 7 or 8 of them. Of the remaining 16 (or 17) we normally work for 8. Of the remaining 8 we will spend time doing peripheral work. Commuting. Preparing things. If you have children, most of that time is spent parenting. However, it's not impossible to find at least 1 or 2 hours in a day for yourself.

Priorities. For most Western people, this amounts to trying to get the most leisure as possible. Whatever spare hours are found can be spent in maximising leisure time. Every activity that's done contributes towards depositing towards this leisure account. Work is now seen as effort that's not really necessarily a good thing. Work is what we do, so that we can acquire more leisure.

So, what amount of time should you spend making sure that your body keeps up with your mind? That you are as physically keen as your mind and your spirit is? That you can continue to look good and feel good too? There are limits imposed by age of course, but for the most part, most of the limitations are imposed by our minds. It's a reality that as we get older we slow down and physically become weaker. More prone to accidents and age related diseases. However, physical activity can continue all the way till you draw your last breath.

30 minutes, three times a week, is clearly not enough. It's the mantra of many fitness programs and is entire garbage. 30 minutes daily is slightly better, but it has to be a quality 30 minutes of high impact physical exercise. But I believe that 1 hour daily, should be the required minimum. At 1 hour, the atrophic consequence of sitting at a desk all day is more likely to be negated. As time goes on, fitness levels will rise to the point where additional minutes of exercise can be earned during the 8-hour work shift.

Priorities and Motivation are the two key ingredients. Making physical fitness a priority is a requirement. If it's not, it's easily relegated to fifth place where it never reaches the top of the list. Motivation is that thing inside you that makes you really want to do it without being coaxed. You have a deep inner feeling of anticipation and can't wait to get to your activity. Motivation is necessary if fitness is to become a life goal. But you also really have to enjoy what you are doing. Playing a sport is one way of getting active. For those of us with children, we always sign them up for this sport or that sport, neglecting to sign ourselves up for anything. Running is a great sport, but too many adults fear it with no justification at all except for the fact that they have never really been taught how to run. They are trying to learn to run by watching and trying to imitate. It's like a non-swimmer jumping into a pool and hoping that if they flail their arms about like an Olympic swimmer, they too will move through the water with the ease of a dolphin.

As you become active, so too will your body shape itself to accommodate your passion for sport. It probably won't be instantaneous. It might even take years, but at the end of it all, you can look proudly at what you sculpted and be proud. And definitely, like a blacksmith folds layers and layers of steel, putting the blade back into the fire and folding it again and again to make the finest sword, what you forge out of the fires of sweat and tears will ultimately be a beautiful thing. And that beauty will shine from the inside out, unlike the beauty forged from the surgeons knife, or from the latest shoes and dresses.

Like a former employer once told me just before they let me go... Go out there and take life on!"